Press. voanews.com
Russian
President Vladimir Putin has agreed to work toward restoring full relations
with Turkey, but said rebuilding trade ties will be time consuming.
"Ahead of
us lies painstaking work to resuscitate trade and economic cooperation. This
process has already started, but it will take some time," Putin said
Tuesday after meeting with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan in Saint
Petersburg.
Erdogan said the
two countries will restore their yearly bilateral trade target of $100 billion
and will speed up the resumption of charter flights from Russia to Turkey.
The Turkish
leader also said he is ready to build a natural gas pipeline with Russia and negotiate
a deal to construct Turkey's first nuclear power plant.
The two agreed
to meet later to seek common ground over how to resolve the crisis in Syria.
Turkey and Russia support opposing sides in the conflict.
Marc Pierini,
visiting scholar at Carnegie Europe and former EU ambassador to Turkey, told
VOA there are no guarantees that Russia and Turkey can overcome their
differences over the Syrian conflict.
"Whether
one day they can come to some sort of understanding on this, I doubt,” Pierini
said. “It may take a little more than just a meeting. Maybe counterterrorism
cooperation will resume, and it will be a first step. But I doubt you can see a
long-term relationship if Turkey doesn't change its position on [Syrian
President Bashar] al-Assad."
Erdogan is
turning to Russia after post-coup criticism from the West and in an effort to
mend relations with Russia after Turkey shot down a Russian fighter plane along
the Syrian border last year.
"Your visit
today, despite a very difficult situation regarding domestic politics,
indicates that we all want to restart dialogue and restore relations between
Russia and Turkey," Putin told Erdogan.
Alexander Baunov
of the Carnegie Moscow Center said, “It is significant for both because both of
them have to bargain hard with the West. Putin is about sanctions and about
normalizing the relations, about bringing them more [to] business as
usual."
"Erdogan
wants, of course, that after crushing the coup he is criticized too much by the
Western politicians, journalists, and media," Baunov added. "For him
to bargain means to show that he can get closer to Russia and alienate himself
from the West.”
Erodgan was
livid after Western nations that condemned the coup attempt last month also
criticized him for his massive crackdown in response to the putsch. Pierini
said the response was in accordance with international law.
"It means
that we don't want to see coups and we support the legitimate government and
president. But it means also the rule of law while fixing the coup,” he said.
Russia was quick
to condemn the Turkish insurgents. More than 270 people died during the failed
attempt by some elements of the military.
Erdogan has
accused Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen, who is exiled in the U.S., of
orchestrating the coup. On Tuesday, Erdogan warned the U.S. that if it fails to
extradite Gulen, it would cause great harm to relations between the countries.
U.S. State
Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau told reporters Tuesday in Washington,
"This [extradition] is not a process that is influenced by emotion or
political rhetoric. It's actually governed by a treaty."
Erdogan viewed
the Western response to the crackdown as betrayal, says Moscow State Institute
of International Affairs' Victor Mizin.
“So, what he
decided, it's some kind of his version of 'pivot to the East,' promoting the
relations with such countries like Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan,” Mizin said. But
the relationship with Russia is the most important tactically, and not just for
Turkey.
“Now it's very important
[for Russia] to turn this country, which was the spearhead of NATO against the
Soviet Union in the past, and where so many intelligence assets or radars had
been placed to monitor Russian military activity, to draw it back to Russia and
to resume good relations,” Mizin said.
Jet downing
The face-to-face
talks in St. Petersburg are expected to focus on restoring economic ties that
were severed after Turkey’s F-16 shot down Russia’s SU-24, resulting in the
deaths of one jet pilot and a rescue pilot killed during a recovery attempt.
The incident
sparked finger-pointing, Russian sanctions, and fears of a wider conflict
between Russia and the NATO member. Moscow accused Ankara of supporting
terrorism, while Turkey accused Russia of violating its airspace and bombing
civilian targets inside Syria.
Russia imposed
costly economic sanctions on Turkey, including banning Turkish food imports as
well as Russian vacationers from visiting Turkey, striking a multi-billion
dollar blow to the country and its important tourist trade.
But, a
surprisingly fast rapprochement came in late June after Erdogan gave a
long-demanded apology, expressing regret to the families of the two pilots in a
letter to Putin. More recently, he accused the pilots of the Turkish F-16 of
being involved in the coup. They were earlier arrested.
Political
analysts say that while Erdogan’s quick 180-degree turn was motivated by the
economic damage caused by lost Russian trade, tensions with his Western allies
in Europe and the United States have spurred the face-to-face meeting with
Putin.
Not all common
ground
Some minority
calls inside Turkey for Ankara to seek a strategic partnership with Russia to
replace ties with the United States and the European Union are unlikely to gain
ground.
“At the same
time, I think it would be unrealistic to think that Turkey could be banished or
ousted from NATO as certain American experts, especially on the conservative
side would suggest because, as I said, strategically, Turkey is too important,”
Mizin said.
While progress
in the talks is expected on economic issues, the conflict in Syria remains a
sticking point.
Russia’s bombing
campaign in support of Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad had already put a
chill on relations between Moscow and Ankara, which supports rebel groups in
Syria’s five-year civil war and wants to see Assad leave power.
VOA's Natasha
Mozgovaya and VOA's Nike Ching contributed to this report.
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